qotd: when did you become a foodie?

       got this from here. kind of a lame-ish title for a site, if you ask me. anywho. my love affair with food goes back a very, very long way. probably my first memory of cooking was when i was set to bring snacks one day for my kindergarten class. i had this awesome noah's ark toy boat that came complete with animals that doubled as cookie cutters, so i made sugar cookies (with generous amounts of help from the parentals, i'm sure -- actually, they probably did most of it, but i do remember cutting out the cookies from the dough). damn giraffes were a pain in the neck. but they were so beautiful and i was so proud of them. i loaded up the cookies into the boat (because it also served as a cookie jar) and took them to school (i went to a private school where such things were allowed). but as i was proudly carrying the cookies to mrs. vaughn's desk, somehow i dropped the boat. it was plastic, so it didn't break, but all the cookies inside it did. i was devastated, but we ate them anyway.

       my next food memory would be of my grandparents, when my grandfather was still alive, so before i was nine still. i loved peanut butter. hmm. no, i was obsessed with it. george washington carver was my hero because he invented it [i learned later that he didn't (i can thank the aztecs for that -- hmm... which might explain my fascination with ancient native american culture) but he still came up with 100 or so uses for the peanut]. for my 5th or 6th (or somewhere in there) birthday i requested (and received) a peanut butter cake with raspberry filling. and for one of my birthdays my grampa gave me a whole gallon of natural peanut butter. best. present. ever. now my obsession has since abated, but i still love the stuff. hmm. i think i'll have that for lunch.

       my real passion for food, though, comes from my grandmother. she was the oldest girl of about a dozen children (not really, but there were several of them) and as such often made the meals. she grew up on a farm in the middle of the depression, but they were fairly self-sustaining and didn't really know that the depression was happening. she would use whatever she could to make sure the family was fed, throwing together some very interesting (and very tasty) culinary delights. her love of cooking and her whimsical techniques are definitely what inspired me, and she encouraged me to experiment and find my own method of creating while having fun with it. some of my favorites of her creations include her cottage cheese pancakes, which sound less than appetizing but they were amazing, and her cranberry-orange-nut bread. oh, and her fudges. she'd usually just do a chocolate or peanut butter (mmm!) but they were awesome.

       i guess i'm still mulling over the desire to go to culinary school. thought about going to le cordon bleu in scottsdale, az a couple years ago. now i have the cia after me. culinary institute of america, that is. probably the top culinary school in the nation. it's fun to think about, but i'm not sure i'd like to do that as a career. my year as a confectioner/chocolatier put me off that a little. and that macbeth remake with james mcavoy that was set in a kitchen *shudders*. and i don't have the 100K it takes to put myself through. and i still want to write. and go places. but i love to cook. probably always will. it's very therapeutic for me, and i guess that's another reason why i don't want to make a stressful career of it.

       hmm. i'm hungry now. lunch time. long walk later. bit of a crazy night last night, so i'm looking forward to a long walk to help organize my thoughts. hope you're all having a good one! later taters!

<edit> i just remembered that when i was little i used to love watching a cooking show on pbs and the theme song was harry mancini's "baby elephant walk." i think i loved it just for the theme.   </edit>